


Liquid Wisdom

by librariankiss



Series: But Epilogue [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Avenger Loki (Marvel), Gen, Post-Avengers (2012)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-04
Updated: 2018-02-04
Packaged: 2019-03-13 07:32:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13565817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/librariankiss/pseuds/librariankiss
Summary: Steve had noticed something recently: Loki was jumpy.





	Liquid Wisdom

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is in the same universe as the rest of the "But Epilogue" series, but it can be read independently.

As the tracking information said he would, Steve found Loki in the coffee house. The one that was around a corner, around another corner, and tucked just inside an alleyway like the owner didn’t want people to know that it was there. If it weren’t for the fact that the same alley housed a florist and an independent bookstore, Steve would suspect something shady. Perhaps, though, Loki was there because the place might carry a seal of anonymity.

Loki had left two days ago and not returned. With no alarm sounding, and nothing suspicious in the tracking data, the others had told Steve not to worry. But Steve couldn’t shake the feeling that they should all know better than that.

Steve would admit to some cynicism regarding this _project_ with Loki, or whatever it was supposed to be. Thor had just left him here with nothing but a clinical report of Loki’s sincerity, of his supposed desire to be better, and now it was up to the rest of the team to—What? Rehabilitate him?

Really, Loki barely spoke to them. Loki also left for days. Slipping from apartment building to apartment building, according to the tracking data. And Steve was supposed to live with telling the world, “We’re taking care of it, so why don’t you just get over it,” was he?

Entering the coffee house, Steve realized that he had been wrong about any attempt to remain anonymous. It was just that wrong level of crowded: enough people to _be_ a crowd, but not so many that it was a crowd in which one could hide. And in noticing this, and noticing all the eyes on him, Steve managed to get himself distracted for just long enough to walk right into someone—who mercifully didn’t spill their drink all over him. Bad enough day already, right?

Steve stumbled back a step. He cleared his throat. “Sorry. Uh, sorry. I—”

“You,” said a voice with just a tint of excess confidence, “do want to avoid that, Steve.”

Of course. If Steve had bumped into anyone other than Loki, he would have called it a miracle.

Loki raised an eyebrow. He didn’t mirror Steve and take a step away. Instead, he held his ground, a smile on his face. Still, there was something off in his posture, as if standing straight took all the effort in the world. Then—huh—he shifted, moving his disposable takeout cup closer to his chest. He seemed like he was ready to spring. Despite the smile, the man in front of Steve was the very definition of that deer in headlights look.

Steve had noticed something recently: Loki was jumpy. He couldn’t flee without alerting so many people that Steve couldn’t count them, but he pushed the rulebook enough to make Steve concerned. That was why Steve was here, after all. And, more than anyone else Steve knew, Loki lived like a man on the edge.

When Thor was around, Loki would use him as a shield. He refused to make eye contact with Bruce—who seemed bothered by it like he wanted Loki to  _like_ him. Loki would even hide behind Steve, sometimes, and every single time Steve would wonder if he should ask Loki to step back.

“I was looking for you,” said Steve. And he might just be able to put it on the list of the dumbest things that he’d ever said.

“Yes. I gathered.”

“I thought you said you don’t like coffee.”

“It isn’t coffee.”

“Uh huh.”

And, for a moment, Loki just stood there. Steve crossed his arms, but did nothing else. If he had learned one thing in the time that he’d known Loki, it was that he wasn’t as patient as a man of his vocation should be. And he wouldn’t hold out for long. Steve just had to stand there. Stand there, and ignore the looks. Usually, he could phase them out. Maybe the atmosphere that standing so close to Loki created was messing with him.

Loki huffed. He turned away from Steve. His other hand joined the first in clutching his cup. He crossed the room so quickly that it was as if he had phased through the crowd—the crowd which still had eyes on them, Steve noticed, but Loki seemed content to ignore that. He took a seat at the side of the room.

As Steve slid into the seat across from Loki, Loki stared, as if fascinated, at the blank brick wall.

When he realized that Loki wasn’t going to say anything, Steve muttered, “Bruce is worried about you.”

“Bruce does that.”

“I know. I don’t get it, either.”

“Yet you were the one who came here for me,” said Loki. And, finally, he looked at Steve. “That suspicion is funny. You knew exactly where I was.”

“Well, yeah. I—”

“It’s _also_ funny that people keep insisting that I’m not a prisoner.”

Steve clenched his jaw. He knew exactly how Loki felt on that one.

Loki smiled. Somehow, the expression seemed gentle. For a moment there was a strange stillness between them, an unbending stillness. Then Loki’s ankle hit the side of Steve’s leg—and Steve felt the weight of the monitor that was attached to it.

Loki turned his smile to the woman at the next table. “There’s no need to stare,” he said. And after she turned away, flustered, “I didn’t go outside my radius, Steve.”

“No. You’d be in a cell if you had.”

Loki made a little humming noise. He leaned forward, eyes dead on Steve, the smallest of smiles still on his face. “I do enjoy being lied to. I know all the effort that you go to”—he widened his smile—“just to achieve it.”

Steve swallowed. He felt a heavy, sickening hammering in his chest. “Come on, Loki. You’re the one who—”

“No, no, I understand the need for dramatics,” Loki said.

Steve said nothing. He didn’t know what to say. So he sat. And he watched Loki. Loki, who was smiling at him as if he had not a care in the world, but suddenly clutching his drink tightly again. What, did he think that Steve wanted to steal it?

Loki had to be furious.

Steve wasn’t about to back down. Here was Loki after two days of apartment hopping, according to the data, and he was sitting in a coffee house with a drink (had he even touched it?) and a smile on his face. Steve could _see_ the restoration process happening around them. He had seen Tony sending money towards that restoration. Forgive him for being a little suspicious of Loki walking around like nothing had happened.

“Why did you come here, Steve?” asked Loki, suddenly. “Were you really _just_ suspicious?”

Steve sighed.

“Steve, you know that I can’t run away.”

“Well, in theory,” said Steve. But Loki’s last words had been so … earnest. It had thrown Steve off.

“I’m not asking you to trust me,” said Loki. “It would be a rather pointless exercise. But I assure you, spending your life wondering when I’ll next betray you will do you no good.” He fell back in his chair, though his hands didn’t leave his cup. “I’d leave it to the expert.”

Steve could only assume that he meant Thor.

“And perhaps you _did_ come here because you don’t trust me,” Loki said. He was swinging his leg now, and it kept hitting—hitting, hitting—the side of Steve’s. “But,” he said, pointedly, “why is that of such concern to you? Bruce seems content just to worry about me.”

Steve took a breath. He didn’t want to answer. But, he was the one who had sought out Loki, and it seemed, so far, that Loki’s interest in Steve’s motive was keeping him from continuing his tour around his two-mile radius. So:

“I don’t get it.”

Loki’s smile vanished in an instant. It took him a moment to recover. When he did, he raised his eyebrow.

“No, really, Loki. I don’t get it.” Taking another breath, Steve leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table—and Loki pulled his cup even closer to himself. “You make all your claims about ruling us, and now you hide behind us? You’re the reason that the city was torn apart, and now you walk around it like  _nothing happened_? Am I supposed to be content with that, Loki?”

He hadn’t—He sighed. He hadn’t meant to say exactly those words, in exactly that way. But what did it matter? Both he and Loki knew just how true the words were.

Loki stopped moving his leg. He watched Steve, unmoving, hands curled around his cup. This was the first time since Steve had arrived that there seemed to be no pretense about the man. But perhaps Steve was imagining that, too.

Finally, Loki asked, “Is that really what you think?”

Steve said nothing for a moment. Then, “It’s what I said, isn’t it? I’m not you, Loki.”

Loki nodded. Slowly. He had broken eye contact with Steve. He appeared, once again, to be transfixed by the wall. Until a second later when his eyes were on Steve again, and he said, “I walk around as if it’s nothing?”

“You’re here, aren’t you?”

Loki’s gaze moved across the room. Steve followed it, and saw a couple—middle-aged, their eyes narrowed at Loki. He’d thought little of the staring. He was used to it.

Loki cleared his throat and summoned his smile. Dropping one hand from his drink, the drink from which he still hadn’t taken a sip, he said, “I’m still free to walk within my radius, yes?”

Steve suppressed a sigh. He should have known, really, that this conversation would only go in circles. “I suppose you are.”

“Thank you,” said Loki. And he said it with this awful, sickening sweetness that sent uneasiness right through Steve.

Loki stood, clutching the top of his cup. “You keep that,” he said.

He was gone before Steve could protest. And as he stepped away, he twisted his hand, spinning his cup in one smooth motion. And it was only because he did so that Steve noticed it at all.

It was only because Loki spun his cup that Steve noticed the “name” written on it.

_Kneel._

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for 75 Tumblr followers! I'm sorry that this thank you is so ridiculously late.
> 
> [librariankiss.tumblr.com](http://librariankiss.tumblr.com)


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